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juupren
Author of 5 Stories |
Dunk
By Juupren
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha.
Kagome wasn’t entirely sure how she had let her younger brother of sixteen years talk her into doing this. She shifted awkwardly on her narrow bench, and looked uncomfortably into the murky water below her. She really didn’t want to find out what it would be like to plunge into that. Trying to push the mental picture of her falling into that water out of her mind, Kagome looked around.
She sat on a hard-plastic yellow bench, much too narrow for comfort, dangling above a tub of dirty- no, no, just dangling above the ground. Wait… NO! Just dangling. Just dangling. There was a bright yellow sign behind her which proclaimed, “Dunk the high-schooler! 2 Balls For $3!” Kagome was dressed in her school uniform to re-iterate the idea of dunking a girl in high school. Glancing up at the sky, Kagome’s mind confirmed what she had seen on the weather that morning: a perfect Spring day, sun beating down (now that she thought about it, she was getting a bit hot in her uniform), one best spent outside. Well, she was outside, at a school carnival, but there was one imperfection in the picture. She was about to be plunged into a tub full of murky water. No! She’d sworn not to think of that! Kagome sighed and buried her face in her hands.
As soon as she did that, she remembered that one tiny wrong move could send her plunging into the swirling brown depths below her. She felt herself losing her balance, panicked, and wildly swung her arms to regain her composure. Several bystanders laughed at her antics; two boys in particular were poking fun at her expense. She finally grabbed one of the poles that secured the net in front of her (to protect her from throws gone awry, Sota told her), holding onto it as if her life depended on it. By this time the two boys laughing at her were doubled over in their mirth.
Kagome glared at them while pulling herself into a more comfortable position on the bench. “Hey! You!” she called. “Yah, you two!” she continued when they looked up at her. Kagome continued her cat-calls. “Yah, you!” She said, pointing to the one with long black hair up in a high tail, and fairy-blue eyes. She faintly recognized him as one of the seniors that went to her school. “Why don’t you throw a ball!” She shouted, trying to lure him in, just as her brother told her to do. But now this was on a more personal level. Kagome watched as he rolled his eyes. “… or do you need a little Viagra to help you out?” she said thoughtfully to no one in particular. She watched as his face turned red and he dug out his wallet. His friend however, put a hand on his arm, and said something. Still red, blue-eyes replaced his wallet slowly, still debating on whether or not to try and dunk her. Sensing she was about to lose the crowd, Kagome moved on to his friend. “And you?” She yelled, this time pointing to the slightly taller one, who had straggly black hair and red eyes. Contacts, Kagome surmised. She also registered that he was a senior as well. “You’re his wife, right?... No wonder he needs Viagra! You look like a demon exorcism gone awry!” Kagome trilled, playing off of red-eye’s looks.
That got his attention. Growling, blue-eyes pulled his wallet back out, closely followed by his wife. Erm – friend. Blue-eyes shoved his three dollars into the hands of Sota, who was running the stand. His vivid blue eyes were narrowed at her in anger, reminding her of Inu Yasha’s look after a particularly harsh jibe at his pride. Kagome gulped when she saw this look on blue-eye’s face. Inu Yasha was her best friend, and she could be assured that he wouldn’t hurt her, but this man…
“Why don’t you let your wife throw for you dear?” Kagome asked in an overly-sweet voice, trying to anger him so that he would miss. Instead, he yelled for her to shut up, and proceeded to throw one of the baseballs that Sota had presented him with at the target to Kagome’s left. His first throw went wide by almost two feet. Kagome’s relief, however was short-lived. His second throw came precariously close to the target, even causing Kagome’s flimsy bench to wobble for a moment. Kagome gripped the pole even harder, her knuckles turning white. Kagome continued throwing insults at the man randomly, until he reached for his wallet only to find it empty.
Red-eyes smirked evilly at Kagome, and reached to pull a twenty-dollar bill form his pocket. Kagome gulped involuntarily.
A bucket of brand new baseballs now sat at the man’s feet, and he reached slowly to pick one out. Just as he was about to throw, Kagome decided to make another scathing comment. “Wow, are those things real? Or what?” The man, startled, threw the baseball directly at Kagome. It was then that Kagome really began to appreciate the net in front of her.
To his embarrassment, Kagome’s hand was pointing toward his chest. His eyes turned a deeper color of red, and this time he snatched a ball from the pail, all but knocking it over in his haste. Kagome giggled, and commented again on how sad it was that he was out walking with his husband when there was dinner to be prepared at home. This caused quite a roar of laughter from those who had gathered around to watch. “Get her good Naraku!” called blue-eyes. “Oh, I will Koga, I will,” Naraku replied with a malicious grin.
At last, their money exhausted, the two walked away, shooting glares over their shoulders at Kagome’s slender form, still situated uncomfortably on the narrow bench.
Kagome was thinking about all the things she would rather be doing than sitting on a hard piece of plastic at four in the afternoon at a school carnival. Business was just starting to pick up, and the carnival would last well past nine o’clock. A few other takers had come by, and failed to dunk Kagome. She was now imagining being at Inu Yasha’s house, her friends Sango and Miroku there, all of them watching the latest movie that Inu Yasha had managed to find. Rin would probably be right there with them, for the little girl loved Inu Yasha, even if he was her adopted older brother. Rin also had an attachment to Sesshoumaru, Inu Yasha’s older half-brother. He was a senior, a year ahead of Inu Yasha, only a junior.
Kagome had long ago decided that the only way to describe Sesshoumaru was, well… cool. He always intervened when Inu Yasha became angry with Kagome or Rin. Ever since she had been little, Sesshoumaru had looked out for her. But now that they were older, she barely saw him, except on the rare occasion that he descended form his room to grab something to eat while she was there. Even though he probably wouldn’t remember her… she would miss him terribly when he went off to college, even if she was only missing a memory of him.
About the time Kagome moved form watching a movie at Inu Yasha’s house to eating hot, steaming, and cheese-dripping pizza, she saw a flash of silver in the crowd. What the heck is Inu Yasha doing here? She asked herself. “Oi!” She cried, regaining the attention of those milling around. They all looked at each other, the unspoken question in their eyes: Who is she talking to?
Said silver-haired boy turned, and Kagome saw a little girl holding on to his right hand. Yup. That’s Inu Yasha! “Yah, you, stupid dog-breath! What’s the matter? Too scared to try and dunk a measly high school girl? What kind of man ARE you?” Kagome screeched, happy to have a chance to get back at Inu Yasha. In her opinion, he needed the payback for not trying to talk her out of doing this.
He moved closer, toting Rin along with him. She hopped up and down with the energy only a seven-year-old could possess, begging him to win her the giant stuffed animal that was a prize for dunking Kagome.
“The itsy bitsy Yasha, climbing up a tree, he sits there and glares at us so moodily. Along came some ramen, he’s down from the tree, and we’re all wonder’in if he just hit puberty!” Kagome figured if that didn’t get him mad, nothing would. She continued grinning at him as he walked up. But then she noticed some things, like how Inu Yasha was a few inches taller than when she’d last seen him: yesterday. And the length of his hair, which was a few inches longer than when she’d last seen him: again, yesterday. He moved even closer, and lowered his sunglasses purposefully. Kagome gazed into golden eyes several shades deeper than Inu Yasha’s, and realized that this was his brother. Sesshoumaru.
“I suggest you not repeat that.” He said suavely. Kagome just sat there, staring into his eyes. Realizing she was staring, a blush crept up her face as he turned away, pulling Rin along with him. Kagome’s mind raced, thinking of all the possible things she could say to bring him back. Settling on something she used to call him years ago, she screamed it out with all her might. “Oh, FLUFFY!” She cried, drawing out the nickname he so hated.
He froze. Turned around. And walked back towards her, fire in his eyes. He pulled three dollars out of his pocket, and handed them to Sota, who, in turn, handed him two baseballs. Sesshoumaru only took one, refusing the second. Kagome gulped as Sesshoumaru dropped Rin’s hand, drew back his arm, and threw the ball. The next thing she knew she was submerged in the tank. Cold, wet, and murky. Spluttering, Kagome shot to the surface, hopelessly trying to wipe the dripping water from her face. She heard laughing from the crowd, and Rin’s gleeful shouts as she was awarded a large green toad plushie. But one sound struck a chord in her bones: Sesshoumaru’s chuckle.
Kagome spit more water out of her mouth. “I may be wet Sesshoumaru! But you are a jerk! And tomorrow-“ Kagome paused to pull her damp hair from her face. “-Tomorrow… I’ll be dry… but you’ll still be a jerk!”
Sesshoumaru just continued laughing, and led Rin away by the hand, holding her plushie for her like the gentleman he was.
Kagome was walking home. She was wrapped in a towel, still wearing her wet clothes, shivering as she slowly trudged down the dimly-lit sidewalk. The carnival had been a huge success, and had made the school a lot of money.
The darkness was complete except for the spaced lights illuminating the sidewalk as she trudged home. Momentarily, she paused to get a pebble out of her shoe, but continued pausing when she thought she heard a noise. Tensely, Kagome placed her shoe back on her foot, and began to walk home again, but much faster. Kagome heard another noise, and stopped; she turned slowly to look behind her, afraid of what she would find. A cat trotted across the path behind her, dragging what looked to be the leftovers of someone’s tuna salad. Relieved, Kagome mentally kicked herself, and turned again – only to be confronted with the leering faces of Naraku and Koga. Kagome ‘eep!’-ed in surprise, and took a step backward. Naraku and Koga took a step foreword. Nervously, Kagome stammered, “H-hey, guys…”
Naraku smiled grimly. “Nice to see you know my sex,” he practically purred. Kagome blushed and took another step backward. “Heh.”
Koga took yet another step toward her. “You know,” he drawled, “We really didn’t appreciate what you said about us today. You should apologize.”
Kagome ‘eep!’-ed again. Koga grinned and drew his fist back. Kagome noticed that Naraku had her arms griped firmly behind her back. Kagome flinched and closed her eyes, waiting for Koga’s fist to connect with her delicate face. But it never came. Instead, she heard a very pronounced ‘oomph’ and she was dropped to the pavement. Quickly, she looked up, only to see Sesshoumaru beating the crap out of his fellow seniors.
“Don’t you know?” he asked, a blow accompanying each syllable, “that it’s not nice to hit girls?”
Kagome just stared, not noticing that her hand was bleeding from its brief make out session with the pavement. Sesshoumaru let Naraku and Koga regain their footing before glaring at them once more. They turned and ran, but Koga was sent off with a firm boot in the behind.
Sesshoumaru turned back to Kagome. His once pristine black shirt was now wrinkled and had some grime on it. One of his knuckles was bleeding. But he didn’t seem to notice. He bent down and delicately picked up Kagome, cradling her like he used to. She curled into him, and he heard a muffled ‘thank you’ coming from where her face was hidden behind her hair. Using the hand closest to her head, he brushed back the still-damp ebony locks from her delicate features. “Thank you,” she said again, looking him in the eyes. Her hand moved to hold her own hair out of her face, and he noticed that her hand was bleeding. Motioning to it with a nod, he told her, “Lets get that bandaged up. My house is closest.”
Kagome simply nodded.
Kagome silently grabbed his own hand and pulled him back down beside her. She cleaned his bleeding knuckles, and bandaged them up, giving him the same care he had shown her. She smiled at him and followed him back into the kitchen to put the bandages away.
Sesshoumaru knew Inu Yasha was still up, watching TV with Miroku and Sango in his room. “Do you want to go watch TV with my half-brother and your friends?” he asked softly, not wanting to wake his parents or Rin. Kagome nodded. He felt somewhat saddened by her response, but led her up the stairs anyway. She, of course, knew where Inu Yasha’s room was, but followed him obediently.
Sesshoumaru opened the door to Inu Yasha’s room quietly, but was greeted, all the same, by a piece of popcorn in the face. He blinked, and flicked it off his shoulder. He’d get his brother back later. Sesshoumaru motioned for Kagome to go inside; she did, but before he could close the door, she had pulled him in with her. Inu Yasha, Sango, and Miroku ripped their attention away from the show they were watching and stared as Kagome pushed Sesshoumaru down on the sofa, and sat down beside him.
The five watched late night television for hours. Sesshoumaru was the fifth member of the groupfor the first time in years – ever since his other friends had decided he was too ‘old’ to hang out with his younger brother and his friends. One by one, the five fell asleep. First was Sango, head lolling on Miroku’s shoulder. Next was Miroku, snoring softly. Third: Inu Yasha, still in shock that his brother had joined them.
At last, Kagome and Sesshoumaru were the only two left awake. Kagome was quickly drifting off into dream land, Sesshoumaru was serving as a comfortable pillow. Kagome smiled softly in her sleep as she curled closer into him, shivering somewhat. He shifted minutely to reach a blanket he had been sitting on, and wrapped it around her form. He hesitated for a moment, and then wrapped his arms around her as well. With that, he fell asleep. The TV was still on in the background.
Neither knew that they would be rudely awoken in the morning by Rin jumping up and down and yelling for the whole household to come and see her big brother’s new girlfriend, or that they both would spend the next four days with terrible colds, sharing the same sofa, wrapped up in blankets and watching bad daytime television. But even if they did know it… right now… they wouldn’t care.
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